On May 18th, I gave my “lectio magistralis” at Forumpa. The event was well prepared, the room a bit small but fully crowded.
Here are my SlideCast or Webinar – not sure which is the right word 🙂
Obviously this is in Italian. What was new/worth knowing with respect to other presentation I gave? Mainly 2 things that you can see from slide 28 onwards:
– the limits of gov20: participation is highly meritocratic and elitistic. Current projects involve Lisa but not Bart Simpson, thereby gain little traction. Beside open data, as Lessig says , you need civic sense, hackers, citizens paying attention. But if you don’t have it, like in the Italian case, gov20 can help building civic sense. Civic sense is not a pre-requisite, it’s an enabling condition but also a result of gov20 initiatives.
– the concrete policy options: here I added to my traditi0nal list the initiative for doing civic hacking in schools as a tool for making civic education more sexy; and the importance of meso-level policy visible in initiatives such as the hub, kublai, rewiredstate, more fully described in our report. I structured clearly the policy options because I wanted to convince policy-makers that there is a clear and easy to-do list.
My final message was: we got many examples, and don’t need much money. The only thing missing now are excuses.
So presentation went well, got good participation and positive feedback.
Yet I couldn’t help but being disappointed. My secret agenda was to make a difference. To shock and to inspire action – in a country which desperately needs to move.
But at the end I saw so little of this. I came away tired, with the feeling that nothing would change. Yet another talk, and little action. Also looking at the blog posts following the overall event, I saw lots of complacency and “coolness” factor, but little collaborative projects.
Also, so many of the comments were on the obstacles that innovators face. This is certainly true and probably the reason I don’t live in Italy. But it’s not the main point and it should not become an excuse! There is so much that can be done thanks to the model of “innovation without permission”! Linnea and friends created pazienti.org with no funding, on their enthusiasm and free time, thanks to the help of many people.
So my final thought is: a little less conversation a little more action. From now on, I will not give speeches on this theme, it’s useless. Anyway, policy-makers just act by imitation, so now that Obama did it others are copying.
Instead, I will give a short speech of max 30 mins, and then animate a collaborative workshop for building gov20 solutions. Participants will bring a problem or a project idea, and together we will work out how to address it in a gov20 way. It’s a bit like Kublai, but in one hour !
This will be more fun and hopefully more productive.
June 3, 2010 at 4:14 pm
What were you expecting? ForumPA and Italy in general are not really the right place for this. I am in Australia and I am amazed to see how many politicians and executives at the federal and state level get this stuff. Yes, there is a reason why you leave outside Italy and all my client interactions are outside Italy.
June 3, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Thanks Andrea. But my complaint is not just about Italy. By the way, the event was well organized and interesting. And ForumPA did a great job covering the event.
The problem is the format. Speeches are not enough. We need live collaboration, hands-on action. We need clear output, new projects being designed and implemented on the moment. I believe this will be more impactful.
June 3, 2010 at 7:22 pm
I just think it would be great! It’s worth a shot even in the torpid Italian public administation, so let’s try next time! 🙂
June 4, 2010 at 8:23 am
I disagree. What you need is to make this the normal course of business. Barcamps and hands-on sessions won’t help
June 4, 2010 at 8:50 am
Andrea, in an ideal world, yes. But for normal course of business, we have to wait a generation.
My argument is that to accelerate change, speeches are useless (and frustrating for me). Learning by doing, or actually learning by playing, is much more effective.
I will report after I do it the first time, next september.
Luigi, look forward to doing it
June 5, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Davide, sorry for my bad english, I would only say that your words are very important for me, they left me with a deep need to do something to change the italian situation. I work in the government of a little town in Emilia and I feel deeply you have the great vision I ever listen. Please don’t give away! I would like to follow your project again. Thank you for you job.
June 6, 2010 at 7:54 am
Grazie Mauro. Your words are very important.
In ogni caso, non voglio smettere di parlare: voglio unire le parole alle azioni, facendo un piccolo laboratorio che sicuramente sara’ piu’ utile. Grazie ancora
June 6, 2010 at 10:19 am
Very important post. I think it kind of closes the golden period of “web 2.0 enforces cultural change”: you feel the need to step down and enforce some cultural change yourself, even on a small scale. I can sympathize with that. Do you mind if I quote it in my book?
A side note: I very much hope I’m wrong, but I predict your “Kublai in a day” initiatives will not have a lot of appeal for Bart. Ultimately, if you take democratic participation as a very fulfilling, but very challenging activity, requiring people to take difficult stands and think hard about entangled problems, the Barts are NEVER going to want to be involved. What we can try to do, however, is to expand the space for the Lisas. Which is no small accomplishment, because in too many arenas Lisa has to watch on the sidelines, and all of the action is with Mr. Burns.
Even if he did get involved, Bart would not make much difference: he is out there in the impact distribution’s tail, which is – surprise surprise – a power law. So, given meritocracy, Lisas drive the system.
June 6, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Ah, and one more thing: we’ve been experimenting with “Kublai in a day” format, with a first attempt going live in October 2009 (explanation. So far, we have not been able to produce a satisfactory experience. But we are very interested, so… if you have ideas, why not try it together?
June 7, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Cheer up David!
Let me tell you a little story which I was witness to… In Mexico public planning is by law participatory, but at the same time planning & governement action (the implementation of these plans) are so determined by administrative periods… so every 6 years there’ll be a new consultation, new process, new calls for society to participate… and of course the discovery that the old problems are still there & worse, if any change at all happened… and rampant disenchantment.
One academic said in one of these new-old instances: “Why do I keep coming if I have come to these exercises every time I’m asked, and nothing happens?… Because I keep on believing that this time we’ll be able to succeed, it does not matter if it’s even in a small way”…
The need to adapt & keep on trying will always be there!
Un abrazo cordial,
August 4, 2010 at 6:22 am
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August 4, 2010 at 6:24 am
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